New Year's Eve in Prague!

Prague Day 2 - Mucha, Communism, Market and New Year's Eve!!

Had a great day walking around the Old Town and visiting a couple of museums.  We started out with the Mucha museum, where are displayed many of the prints, posters and paintings of Alphonse Mucha, the Art Nouveau painter of Czech fame.  I love his work and the museum is well done.  We then walked on down to the Museum of Communism, which is on the second floor of an old, ornate building next to a casino and over a McDonald's!!  Its a very interesting display that walks you through the history of communism in the Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia, with many artifacts and memorabilia of the communist years, lots of propaganda posters, pictures and films of the major moments in the history of communism in this country.  After we left there we wandered from Wenceslas Square down into the Old Town neighborhood where there is an open air market.  It was a lot of fun browsing through the market stalls, with lots of local artisans and their wares.  I had a light lunch of mulled wine and a trdelnik (my newest favorite food!!).  We wandered into some of the many shops in that area and finally made it to the Old Town Square where the famous astronomical clock is located and the square was teeming with New Year's Eve activity.  Lots of mimes, street musicians, magicians, festive lights everywhere, street food and crowds of people.  The smell of grilling meat, roasting chestnuts, trdelnik, hot wine, hot mead and lots of other delicious treats permeated the air.  It was cold, but so long as we kept moving we were able to keep from freezing.  We walked back past the Powder Tower and up through Wenceslas Square where New Year's Eve revelers were already starting to set off firecrackers.  Some of them are so loud it sounds like someone setting a bomb off!  We came back to our apartment about 4:30 so as to rest up and relax a bit before going back out for our evening river cruise.  A hot cup of tea and some Christmas cookies were sufficient to tide us over until the buffet feast on the boat.   

We went on a river dinner cruise on the Vltava River so that we would be in a good spot for the fireworks.  One thing we learned tonight is that Prague-ers LOVE fireworks and everyone sets them off all evening and into the night, non-stop.  While the official fireworks are at midnight over the Vltava River and many other landmark buildings in the city, there are thousands of fireworks going off from the minute it gets dark until well into the wee hours of the morning.  (As I write this it is 2:30 AM and the fireworks over Wenceslas Square are still booming away!)  We got down to the dock early, having made our way on the metro to the pier.  It was cold so I had another hot mulled wine to warm up while we waited to board.  When we got on board and got going they served the first round of drinks and there was a jazz band playing as we rode down the river.  The Vltava River has a lock just below the Charles Bridge so we had to go through the lock both going down the river and on the return back up.  We had a delicious hot and cold buffet dinner and enjoyed the ride up and down the river seeing fireworks going off from all different spots all along the way.  After a few hours, we got brave and went up on the top deck, outdoors where we could see all the buildings and bridges lit up and see the many different fireworks going off all over.  These are all private people who have bought fireworks and set them off, right in the midst of crowds, I might add!   Safety doesn't seem to be much of a concern here.  All night long we heard and saw sirens flashing as fire trucks and ambulances and police cars went careening all over the place.  As we got closer to midnight all the cruise boats congregated just north of the lock, right near the Charles Bridge.  At midnight all hell broke loose as all of the boats sounded their horns and thousands and thousands of fireworks went off in every conceivable direction.  I was spinning like a top trying to take them all in.  It went on for full twenty minutes (officially) but actually never really stopped as the private fireworks continued non stop all over the place.  Truly, you haven't really seen fireworks until you've witnessed Prague on New Year's Eve!  What a show!  We left our boat at 1:00 AM and went to get the metro, only to learn that we had missed the last train.  So we walked back to the apartment, through drunken revelers and accompanied by non-stop booms and bangs as firecrackers and Roman candles and all manner of other fireworks continued to be set off, often altogether too close for comfort.  The Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square were littered with broken champagne bottles and the detritus of fireworks among other things!  It really looked like "the morning after the night before" all over town.  We walked as fast as we could since being out among the drunken revelers many of whom were still playing with fire was a bit nerve-wracking!  We were much relieved to get back to our apartment and relative quiet.  So as it nears 3:00 AM I'm ready to be off to bed. 

Happy New Year!!